


All Roads, They Lead Us Here

by rosietyler



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:22:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24859837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosietyler/pseuds/rosietyler
Summary: After the events on Ranskoor Av Kolos, the Doctor brings her Fam back to Earth for a bit of relaxation.It is only then she realises she is being followed by two humans with an agenda, who need to her to help them save humanity and the rest of the universe.So just a normal day for the Doctor, then.
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all! so probably like most of you, lockdown brought a doctor who rewatch, which brought me to re-reading my favourite fics, which brought me to this idea bunny that wouldn't stop hopping around in my head ...
> 
> of course, this is completely AU after the events of the series 11 finale, the battle of ranskoor av kolos.
> 
> please be kind, it's my first doctor who fic in a decade. hope you enjoy!

**Prologue**

The huge scale of One Canada Square extending into the London skyline may be imposing for some, but for the two young adults weaving their way around the building, it was a second home. They could, if asked, have made their way around Torchwood Tower blindfolded.

The young man and the young woman deftly moved around the building, causing as little disruption as possible and trying to keep a low profile. They were both dressed all in black, standard issue for Torchwood Agents on a mission. They moved scarily in sync with one another, clearly used to working as one. They had left the offices, high up on the 25th floor, and were working their way down. The pair had entered the lift at Floor 20, and were heading for the basement, where the Torchwood Institute’s secret project was housed.

Only a handful of people knew of Torchwood's secret project. The Director, obviously, who had given the go-ahead for the project; Head Scientist; Head of Research and Development; and Head of Communications. Only the four, plus the two young recruits, knew of the monstrously powerful device that was kept in the basement of Torchwood Tower.

Departing the lift at the ground floor - it would not take them to the basement, which was only accessible by a hidden staircase, should any eagle-eyed members of Torchwood staff stumble across it - they swiftly and silently buzzed their way through the secret door - coded to their unique signature - and walked down the remainder of the stairs to the gloomy basement.

"Are you nervous?" the woman asked, her voice quiet in the chasm of the basement. She went to tuck her brown hair behind her ears in a slight nervous tick - her hair was in a ponytail, so there was no hair to tuck.

The young man stopped walking and looked at her. He stood half-a-head above her, so he had to look down a little to catch her eye. "A little," he answered honestly, putting his hand on her shoulder. "But I know that the Director and the others would not have asked us to do this mission if we didn't think we would be the best people for the job." He started off down the corridor again, leaving the woman to catch up.

She caught up easily. "Oh, we are the best, I have no doubt about that," the woman waved a hand as if dismissing that idea, which earned a chuckle from the man. "I just mean - there is a lot at stake. A lot riding on this. We need to succeed by any means necessary."

That last sentence had been ringing in her ears since it has been spoken by their Head of Communications in their final briefing three hours ago.

"And we will," the man reassured her, as they reached the door labelled _'Basement, Danger of Death. Keep Out'._ "Ready?" He had one hand on the handle, one eyebrow raised at her.

"As I'll ever be," she smiled, and together they opened the door.

It was slightly lighter beyond the door, and they pair squinted at first in the bright light. They made their way down another corridor and round a bend, until they were in front of Torchwood's Secret Project.

Which, to the untrained eye, looked exactly like a hole in the wall.

Thankfully, no-one in the room was untrained.

In front of the hole in the wall, stood Torchwood's Director, their Head of Communications, their Head of Research and Development, and their Head Scientist. The four all had severe looks on their faces; all knew what was at stake with this mission.

The two young adults stood forward. "It is ready?" The man asked, nodding in the direction of the machine.

The Head of R&D nodded. "Yes," he said brusquely, playing with a few more buttons at a control panel on the wall.

"Right," the Director said, stepping forward. "Have you got your teleportation devices?"

Both young adults held up their thin, circular device. They slipped them over their heads. The Director nodded once.

"We will try and make sure you land within half-a-mile of his location. Remember; keep your heads down and remain out of sight until you are sure it is your target," the Head Scientist explained, going over what they had spoken about during the Briefing earlier in the day.

"Head down, low profile, got it," the girl said, nodding.

"You must make initial contact when you arrive," the Director explained. "Just to say everything went well. After that, you must get back here as soon as possible. Use your first names, but no surnames. Deflect any and all questions until target is acquired. Got it?"

Both nodded.

"Good." the Director nodded too. "Are you good to go?"

"Thirty seconds," their Head of R&D said. "Good luck, agents. Make sure to keep the equipment I gave you earlier on you at all times; he must not find them. Travelling through the Vortex will make you feel nauseous as first, but it does go away." He swallowed roughly. "You'll do us proud. You always do."

The young woman looked slightly teary.

The Director almost did, too. She shook head her briskly, as if trying to get water out of her ears. "Remember your mission: Locate, infiltrate and bring the Doctor to Torchwood. As soon as you can. Good luck."

And with that, the two young adults vanished into thin air.


	2. One

** Chapter 1 **

The two young adults hit the ground sharply; the girl shrieked as she missed her landing, holding on to the boy's shoulders. He landed on his feet with his knees bent, as he was trained to do, which absorbed some of the impact that had been the girl's downfall.

"Alright?" he asked her, hands on her shoulders making sure she was steady.

The girl stumbled a little, but eventually nodded. "Yeah. Blimey, my head's killing me." She put on one hand on the side of her head and massaged the skin at the temple, but soon realised that the action was actually accomplishing very little.

"Mine too," the man said, ruffling his light brown messy hair. "He really wasn't kidding when he said travelling through a Vortex is rough."

The pair looked at where they were; they were definitely in London, judging by the street sign. But instead of a busy area like they thought they would land, they were on a quiet suburban street. Neither of them recognised it. It seemed be around midday, the sun quite high in the sky, and the street was deserted except for some cars parked in front of the leafy green houses.

"Where are we?" The brunette girl asked, eyebrows knitted together. She bent over, her elbows on her knees as she tried to catch her breath from the journey.

"No idea," her companion replied, looking around at the quiet street. There didn't appear to be anything untoward happening in it, with just a warm breeze drifting through the trees. He dipped into his pocket and brought out what looked like an early 2010s smartphone. He pressed a button at the side that turned it on, then it remained silent. "Hmm. That's odd. It should be dinging to let us know he's nearby."

"Great alien tech that. Dinging. Very profesh," the girl said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the quiet smartphone as she managed to straighten up, although her breathing was still pretty shallow.

"You can complain to him when we go home," the man shot back, but there was no malice in his voice. The girl smirked at him. "Anyway, we could have brought the one we use on normal missions but half of this mission is about _blending in."_ The machine sudden made a soft ding. "Haha! See. Told you!" The machine continued to make a soft dinging sound, that probably couldn't be heard by anyone a foot away from the pair.

"No need to gloat. Which way?" she asked, nodding up and down the quiet street. It remained steadfastly silent, with only the warm breeze blowing through the trees that lined the streets the only sound. 

"You alright? Able to get going?" he asked her in return, looking slightly concerned.

The girl nodded, her brown ponytail bobbing up and down with the head movement. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Bit of a sore head, but the breathing's pretty much normal. Let's just get going. Which way?"

"That way," he replied, not looking up from the device but pointing left; they headed off in that direction quietly, trying not to attract attention.

"God, it's warm," she said, wishing she hadn't worn all black with a leather jacket now. "And a bit posh, eh?" she noted at the street, as they followed the 'dings' from the Alien Tech Detector. "Maybe he's gone up in the world."

"I'll tell her you said that," the man joked, waggling a finger in her face.

The girl just laughed loudly in response, the laughter seemingly reverberating in the empty street.

"Be quiet," he said, grabbing her shoulder in warning. "We're supposed to be silent and inconspicuous, not laughing all about the place like a bloody foghorn."

"Oh, shut up." She pulled her arm free of his grasp, although it hadn't been strong. She shoved him unceremoniously off the kerb and he stumbled over the edge.

"I can picture it now," the young man continued breezily, as though the girl hadn't spoken or shoved him as he nimbly regained his footing. "' _Terribly sorry we failed the mission, Director, Freya got noticed by laughing like a foghorn'._ "

The woman - Freya - scowled, her upper hand gone. "I think you just like saying 'foghorn'," she said, scrambling for a comeback. 

"To be fair, it is a great word."

Freya didn't respond, but rolled her eyes so hard her companion was sure it must have hurt.

"Are we still going the right way?" She asked, as they were now at the top of the street, where the street had broken off into a junction. A glance down the other three streets to the left, right and ahead of them showed they were exactly like the street they had left behind.

The man just laughed, although quietly. He looked at the ATD - as it was affectionately known in the field - and studied it. "Yes, I think we're to keep going straight ahead."

Freya took off at a jog without waiting for him.

"Freya!" the man hissed, running after her. "We can't split up, that's Rule Number One-"

"Excuse me, Rule Number One is 'don't wander off'. Don't split up is Rule Number Two. You should really know this by now."

It was now the man's turn to roll his eyes. "In this case, they're pretty much one and the same."

"Who put you in charge?!"

The man snorted in distain, his arms crossed over his chest. "I'm not in charge, but if you're going to take unnecessary risks I'm gonna have to answer for them when we get home!"

"Unnecessary risks like _crossing_ _the road?_ " Freya said incredulously, her eyebrows near her hairline and her voice getting louder and louder. "Anyway, _I'll_ have to answer to _my_ unnecessary risks when I get home! You are not my carer, Jack."

"Feels like it, sometimes."

Freya huffed. "By your own choice, then! I never asked you to be, and neither did -"

"Freya."

Jack's voice was a warning, harsh and short. It made her stop dead in her tracks, long since learned to trust him. Jack's hand reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her down and behind a short wall separating a lush green front garden and a slightly dingy alley.  
  
"What's happening?" she asked, glancing down at the ATD.

"It's fluctuating," Jack whispered, his gaze never leaving the device in his hands. "I think he's on the move."

A wheezing, groaning sound filled the air, entirely foreign and misplaced in this quiet, upper class street. The two teens glanced at each other in relief and excitement.

"TARDIS!" they both breathed, and they high-fived each other enthusiastically still crouched behind the wall. The TARDIS materialised into view, but no-one came out of it.

"Let's wait a little, see what he does," Jack suggested, and Freya nodded her consent.

"I'll call in it," she said, and out of her leather jacket pocket pulled out what looked like a wireless earbud. "Control? Agent 3421. We have completed Phase One - Locate the Doctor. Commencing Phase Two - Infiltrate."

_"This is Control. Copy that, Agent 3421. Moving to Phase Two. Keep safe."_

The two stayed crouched for another couple of minutes, with no movement from the TARDIS. It stayed sitting there, eerily quiet.

"How long do we wait?" Freya asked, her legs going a bit numb from the awkward position.

"I would say as long as it takes," Jack answered, stretching out his left leg and wincing as the pins and needles began in earnest, "but I'm getting stiff."

"Should we -" Freya's sentence was cut off by a man suddenly exiting the doors, halfway through talking to someone. He was older, slightly smaller.

"-It's absolutely, definitely London," the man was saying, Essex accent apparent, pointing at something just above the pair's heads; Jack pulled Freya down a little further. "That street sign there says Borough of Kensington."

"Shouldn't he just able to tell where the TARDIS landed?" Freya whispered to Jack, an eyebrow raised, all moans about the soreness of squatting gone.

Jack nodded. "I don't think this is the Doctor. "

"Doc!" The man hollered back into the TARDIS, and the two grinned at each other, happy their hunch paid off. Jack whispered _'Doc?'_ to Freya, who made a face. "I'm saying we're definitely still in London."

Then, three more people spilled out the TARDIS, and the pairs' eyes went wide. There was a young woman and a young man, with an older - but by no means old - woman.

"He can't be that young guy," Jack hissed to Freya as the group exited the time travelling spaceship. "No way would he regenerate into someone that young."

"You never know," Freya said with a shrug of her shoulder. "But I think it might be that woman, the blonde one? She looks like she knows what's going on."

Just then, the blonde woman started talking. "Right," she said, her Yorkshire accent heavy and her hands on her hips. "There is something wrong with my TARDIS. We were just in Sheffield and now it's taken to us London? Why? Why are you being weird?" she exclaiming, pointing at the TARDIS door.

Definitely the Doctor.

"Should we call it in that they homed the signal on the wrong Doctor?" Jack asked. "It could be risky if we land at the wrong moment in his - sorry, her - timeline."

"It should be okay," Freya said, mirth in her voice voice. "I don't see why _which_ Doctor it is really matters, as long as it is the Doctor. Anyway, I want to see the look on their faces! It'll be _classic._ The Doctor, saviour of worlds, a female? Brilliant."

"London, 2032," the woman was continuing, holding a finger in the air quizzically. All three of her companions looked on like they trusted her to tell them everything. "June. No, July. Definitely July."

"2032?" the younger girl said, gazing around. "13 years in the future. That's so close."

"Yes, it is close," the Doctor agreed. "But why is July 2032 in London so important that we had to be uprooted from Sheffield in 2019 to come to this quiet street? I mean look at it, there's nothing remotely interesting going on here."

"Remember, the TARDIS can see timelines," Freya said to Jack as the Doctor was pondering aloud. "I bet she's moved them here for us. So we can fulfil the timeline. So this must be the right Doctor!"

"Yeah," Jack nodded, his earlier anxiety dissipating. "Right, how do we get into the TARDIS? Can't exactly walk up and expect her to let us in to spy of her for a bit, then kidnap her."

"I have an idea," Freya said, not taking her eyes off the four outside the TARDIS. The older man seemed to be pointing out to the younger man - rather giddily - that all the cars along the street were electric, whilst the Doctor appeared to be ranting aloud to the other woman. "Wait until they're all back inside, then it's the perfect time to do a Wrong Door special."

"Aww, he'd be so proud," Jack said, mock pride in his voice as he clapped Freya on the shoulder. He turned serious again a second later. "But that does sound effective. What's chasing us?"

Freya thought for a moment, but Jack chimed in first. "Slabs?" he offered, shrugging a shoulder. "They're pretty harmless, but normal people would think they were being stalked. Gives them just enough of an Alien flavour to be somewhat interesting."

Freya grinned, her tongue poking out between her teeth ever-so-slightly. "Excellent idea, Jack."

"Known for it occasionally," he joked back, watching as the Doctor ran back inside, still shouting at the TARDIS. The three companions shared a glance, and then headed back inside.

"You ready?" Freya asked Jack, eyebrow raised. He nodded.

She got up, patting her cheeks slightly to give them a reddish tinge. Jack copied her. They looked at each other and back up the alley a little bit, before letting out a tremendous scream. They then bolded down the alley, pretending to look up and down the street frantically.

They were always taught the setup was just as - if not more so - crucial than the execution for a Wrong Door Special. 

"A telephone box!" Freya pretended to spot, frenziedly hitting Jack on the arm. She made her voice slightly wheezy, like she'd been running for some time. "Let's hide in there until they leave!!"

"Good idea!" Jack feigned agreement and they headed down the street towards the TARDIS, glancing over their shoulders pretending that something was chasing them. "Run faster, Freya!"

"Running as fast as I can!" she said, as she bodily slammed into the TARDIS.

"Get in, get in!" Jack said, and mercifully the TARDIS played along with them and let them inside.

Freya closed the door after her, pretending not to notice the cavernous console room. She feigned exhaustion, and lent her forehead against the door. "Do you think it won't notice us?"

"Dunno," Jack said, playing along. "Maybe it's too thick to check police boxes."

"EXCUSE ME!"

Freya and Jack stilled, turning around with almost pantomime slowness at the Doctor's shout. Both of their eyes went wide at the sight of TARDIS console room, and they needed no acting now. Although TARDISes were not new things to either of them, this one was seriously impressive, with it's lit up columns reaching high into the ceiling space.

"Bloody hell," Jack breathed, keeping his back to the door. "What the hell is this?"

"I thought this was a police box," Freya said next to him, her voice full of awe.

"How on Earth did you get into my TARDIS?" the Doctor demanded, as her and her three companions rounded on the two, quite threateningly.

The two gulped. Showtime.


End file.
